The Irish standard., 1887-01-08
BIRDS OF THE FOREST.
rhe kindly Spirit They Display To-
ward Their Human Friends.

way-An Amusing Experience with the
Shrewd Chewinks-The Vibrant
Property of Wood.
wv. II. Gibson, in Harpers Magazine.1
The chewink and veery-thrush are birds
which have often brought within close
.ye-shot What an amusing, artful fellow
This chewink is! for am persuaded that
there is more significance in that foxy-red
vest Of his than is generally accredited.
Once after having amused myself, as l
supposed, at his expense for full half
hour, suddenly discovered that /, and not
he, had been playing the fool. While
watching with much iself-credit his queer
antics as he lowered about my conceal
ment CHANGED to observe his mate allght
for moment on a distant branch, justlong
enough for me to note the caterpillar in
her bill and tell me that her brood nestled
somewhere near at hand. Taking the angle
Of her fight as guide, / arose from my
covert to seek the nest, and then began
the ejaculatory jargon from bush and thick
ct: % Don't ye w;nh! don't ys a0ink!' said
this alert piclzet~guard, in the plain
bst Anglo-Saxon, as I prowled around
among the undergrowths, only soon to
discover the female bird on branch above
me- After several minutes vain search l
loitered back to my original retreat, and
here my robin again entertained me with all
sorts Of antics among the underbr1sh and
dried leaves, seeming to favor especially
spot beneath clump of maiden~hair ferns;
to my left. In fact, nearly all Of his ma
neuvers were confined to this particular
side, and with artful purpose, as I after
ward discovered to my chagrin; for on
arising suddenly to leave the wood, the
female bird started up not ten feet to the
right Of where stood, and moments
search revealed the nest embedded in the
hnves at the foot of a tree, and containing
four callow young.
Seated at new point Of view, whence
could easily perceive the nest, I waited to
observe the mother-bird return. But I
waited long and vainly. She was nowhere
to be seen, though her knowing spouse
still pursued his former arts close by.
Only once he called out so plainly 'sDon't
ye wink!" that instinctiyely turned
toward the nest But the mother-bird
failed to appear, and as rose once more to
depart, and approached her brood,
what was my astonishment to OBJ
serve her deliberately get off the nest
before my eyes, run a few feet, and fly
up among the treesi Thus twice she
seemed to spirit herself upon her nest and
elude ME even while I looked, while her
confederate in the hocus pocus kept up his
continual diverting pleasantly. AT length
1 thought of an aid to my Investigations,
and approaching the nest, tucked within
the meshes Of it's further side a small piece
of white paper--sa focusing point-some-
what after the manner of the night hunter
Of the deer, who during daylight sights his
stationary rifle upon a piece OF phosrhor-
escent wood adjusted above the baited salt
Lick, and waits in the darkness to observe
his tsfox-fre'' obscured ere he pulls the
trigger.
Imagine my surprise, however, to ob-
serve this white spot disappear, apparent
II without any intervention, even while
looked upon it; and Of my still further sur
prise to discover, on nearer approach,
the quiet, soft-eyed bird demurely sitting
in front of it, and revealing it again as she
took wing.
'',She aui,atelW s1e aci7ekec'' cried a lowering
voice from right and left, apparently ac-
cepting no other theory Of discovery. Thus,
then, was the riddle Of her presence solved.
She had kept the tree between us in her
approach, and apparently waited an op-
perfume moment when my eyes were di-
rected to her confederate to steal
around the base Of the trunk and glide up
on her nestr-an act which L soon observed
-~and when once nestled she so assimilated
herself to her urroundings that I doubt if
the dried leave themselves knew Of e. for
eign presence among them. Yes, the
ground-robin comes honestly by his motley.
The yeery the nuthatch, the chat, the
Maryland yellow-throat and the daintiest-
feathered forms of tiny warblers will come
about your woodland haunt without decoy
or other invitation. The cat-bird among
the fringy underground at the edge Of the
wood will I" dart and new; and otherwise
beguile your amused attention by the hour.
I doubt not that could stroke his gray coat
if really and determinedly attempted. /
have often come very near it without half
trying.
" Listen and look intently, and catch the
exact effect as nearly as you can," says a
contemporaneous saunterer.
through a thick wood one day, I |
heard the familiar cultural notes Of the |
cuckoo, or rain crow, among the trees not |
far distant. A closer analysis Of the sound |
suggested peculiar quality not before |
noted, and instinctively picked up two !
bowlders from the stone wall which ran
through my covert, and by striking them
together with slight rebounding pressure
and gradually accelerated stroke, to my
surprise decoyed the bird so close that T !
could see the color Of its eyes. 1 hope to
get another opportunity to repeat the test
and assure myself that the former episode
was not an accident or mere coincidence.
How the resonant tattoo Of the wood
9ecker rings out through the arches Of the
vernal wood! 1t has proven a puzzle to
many that this tiny hammer should possess
The power to awaken such a volume Of
sound. But the secret lies not so much in
the hammer as the drun-the dry, vibrant
wood. The bird is not here for food; no
soggy timber would thus speak
>ut for him, for he has his bulletin tree
n the orchard and his signal tree in the
:orest If he desires to wake the echoes,
% tell the whole woodsy community, includ-
ng his listless mate. perhaps, that he is
about, this ringing wooden tongue serves
him better than his own.
Apropos of the vibrant property Of wood,
lave you never heard the grinding in the
lead, dry trunk of the pine-the gnawing
If the minute teeth Of the borers9 It is
ike busy carpenter-shop in full blast.
in a recent walk in Conway
woods, that such a tree audibly announced
f,,1iX |